The classical music industry is furious that the ARIAs’ inappropriate categorisation snubs the whole art form.

The classical music industry is up in arms at the prospect of the ARIA Awards Best Classical Album being won by electronica band Flight Facilities for their live album in which they are backed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. The ARIA nominations announced yesterday list the album as one of the five nominees, but Limelight understands that it has likely carried the category, the winners of which will be announced tomorrow.

“This album consists of Flight Facilities’ original music, with the accompaniment of an orchestra. The Flight Facilities’ compositions sit clearly within the electronic music genre,” a clearly frustrated Toby Chadd, Label Manager at ABC Classics and Jazz, told Limelight. “Under the ARIA chart eligibility criteria, a classical album ‘must be of works composed by recognised classical composers’, which Flight Facilities are not; or be ‘in a publicly recognised classical style’, which these compositions are not.”

A spokesperson for the Awards, however, preferred to shift the blame, saying that “ARIA does not decide what albums are included in each genre category, rather it is label members that choose the category they believe is best reflective of their work. In this case, Flight Facilities label Future Classic entered this album in the Classical genre.”

“It meets the entry criteria, and was judged accordingly by the specialist Classical music judging panel,” the Awards maintain. “The specialist judging panel is comprised of ARIA members and classical music sector experts, including media, retail, former nominees and ARIA winners. The 2016 overall judging academy has over 1,000 participants, but only 183 are eligible to vote in the classical category.”

Chadd, who raised the issue with the ARIA Awards as soon as he was aware of the situation, is disappointed that his comments have been ignored. “It does seem extraordinary that an album can fail to meet every single one of ARIA’s stated chart criteria and yet still potentially win the Classical ARIA,” he said. “The fact that an album is so clearly and undeniably not classical, and yet can still be in the running for the Classical ARIA, would seem to raise significant questions around the voting system currently in place.”

However, the ARIA Awards claim that Chadd’s intervention was too late. “ABC Classics queried the inclusion of Flight Facilities after voting had closed,” they said. “No one in the specialist classical music judging panel raised any queries about the inclusion of the Flight Facilities album during the voting period. ARIA relies on and defers to the decision of the specialist voting panels in each specialist genre.”

Robert Patterson is Director of ABC Commercial Distribution and is equally distressed at the nomination of Flight Facilities as Best Classical Album. “Sadly, I think it points to the kind of very long and slightly ordinary history that classical music and the ARIAs have had,” he told Limelight. “I remember when the Classical ARIA was part of the main ARIA Awards, but it was one of those awards that was given out during the toilet break, quite literally. Several years ago they created these Fine Arts Awards, which was an attempt to give the classical and jazz worlds their time in the sun. It was a nice gesture but it always felt a little token. With this latest nomination round it seems that no one at ARIA really cares what goes in these categories. If they did there would be far more rigour around it.”

Patterson and Chadd are both keen to stress that their problem is not with Flight Facilities per se, and don’t want to take anything away from what they believe is a fine album. “My beef is with the ARIA organisation,” says Patterson. “It’s defining an album as classical the moment that there’s an orchestra or some violins playing an arrangement or providing backing. And what is crazy is looking at the calibre of some of the other things in the category – you’ve got Richard Tognetti and the ACO, you’ve got Nicole Car who’s this very minute singing [Così fan Tutte] in Berlin.”

Chadd agrees: “The ARIA Awards are a rare moment when the classical industry in Australia has a chance to be championed and to receive acclaim on a national, public stage. We are fortunate to have a thriving classical industry here, and labels and artists who are doing brilliant, world-beating things – and we have been fortunate also to have had ARIA’s support through the years. I know how much an ARIA nomination or win means to artists – and for classical artists, the Classical category is the only one they would ever have a chance of winning. If we’re going to allow Flight Facilities to enter and potentially win the Classical category, then what place is there for Classical artists within the ARIAs?”

Limelight understands that the ARIA nominations were effectively delayed by a week as the board held an emergency meeting to discuss the situation, but at the end of the day it was decided that no action was to be taken to redress matters.

“It’s frustrating that, given our attempts to raise this issue with ARIA, a satisfactory resolution couldn’t be reached,” says Chadd, who believes that a win for Flight Facilities will send a hugely damaging signal. “I certainly share the disappointment of the artists – across all labels – who have missed out on nominations this year, and those within the classical community who will feel that the place of the ARIAs as the benchmark for classical recordings in Australia has been damaged.”